Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management should bring in an outside entity to gauge the effectiveness of the overhauled procurement strategy implemented in 2019 to improve its multi-billion-dollar nuclear cleanup operation, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. The head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) should also develop specific performance goals for […]

The Department of Energy is “resurrecting” a proposal to build a 10-megawatt solar power field at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an infrastructure manager told an advisory board meeting Monday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management studied and dropped solar plans after starting to look at it in 2019, said David Bender, the […]

The Department of Energy acknowledged late Thursday it will miss the latest state deadline for starting radiological operations of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Idaho National Laboratory but still expects to start treating sodium-bearing waste this fall. The federal agency has requested an extension beyond the current Friday Sept. 30 deadline for using […]

As expected, the Department of Energy has signed a potential five-year, multibillion-dollar extension with the Fluor-led management and operations manager for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the company said late Thursday.  The extension could keep Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) on as the prime contractor through September 2027 and be worth $12 billion […]

Attorneys for current and former contractors at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio said last week they want to limit duplication of paperwork from various citizen lawsuits in federal court accusing the companies of allowing dangerous amounts of contamination to escape outside the fence. The lawyers for a group of eight contractors also […]

The award of seven field site technical assistance contracts together worth up to $120 million over five years was announced this week by the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts were awarded to S&K Mission Support, AKIMA Systems Engineering, ARS Aleut Remediation, Catawba Engineering and Environmental Services, Energy Technology Alliance, […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Coaxing new waste treatment facilities to run smoothly and tackling a variety of issues tied to a mature but graying workforce are among top challenges facing the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, agency execs said here Friday. On the upside, Environmental Management (EM) is approaching yearly funding of almost $8 […]

At least one Department of Energy nuclear cleanup property, the Portsmouth Site, is assured of replacing a seasoned lawmaker in November’s midterm election, with Sen. Portman (R-Ohio) not seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) , the incumbent from Ohio’s 13th congressional district, is running against J.D. Vance, the GOP […]

David Campbell, former senior vice president of Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services, is joining EnergySolutions, the Salt Lake-City based company said Tuesday. Campbell, whose background includes executive stints at Bechtel as well as the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), will be joining EnergySolutions as the company’s executive vice president for business […]

The legacy nuclear cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said Tuesday it recently awarded a total of $120 million in subcontracts for soil contamination work to three companies. Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) said in a press release that Idaho-based North Wind Group will assist […]

A lawsuit over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is apparently being revived after plaintiffs and the defendant prime contractor failed to agree on final details of a settlement proposal put forward in June. After agreeing June 8 to a draft settlement agreement from mediator Chad […]

The Department of Energy has suspended centralized collection of weekly COVID-19 summary information from its labs, plants, and nuclear cleanup sites, a spokesperson with the agency’s Office of Environmental Management said Monday. “Most DOE locations are at a low COVID-19 transmission rate in accordance with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Community Levels,” the […]

The Department of Energy and the state of Tennessee have agreed to devote $42 million to address natural resource damages around the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a recently-published assessment. The state and federal agencies that serve as the trustees for natural resources at the Oak Ridge Site have agreed in principle […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has completed deactivation of Building 235-F at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to an agency press release Thursday.  Decommissioning should be finished in fiscal 2030, William (Ike) White, the office’s acting head, also said this month in a letter to a federal nuclear safety […]

ARLINGTON, VA. —The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York has started tearing down the Main Plant Process Building this week, executives said here Thursday during the National Cleanup Workshop. John Rendall, president and general manager of Jacobs-led CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, announced the start […]

ARLINGTON, VA —A Democrat who co-chairs the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus predicted here Thursday there will be a continuing budget resolution to keep the Department of Energy and the other federal agencies running beyond the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. “We are not going to shut the government down,” Rep. Susie Lee […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management should transfer the Biology Complex, or Mouse House, to the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Oak Ridge Site Y-12 National Security Complex by the end of December, the head of the cleanup team said here Thursday. That was the word from Ken Rueter, […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Talks about the contractual future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, ongoing for years between the Office of Environmental Management and the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, could bear fruit within three months, the head of the cleanup office said here Thursday. William (Ike) White made the remark Thursday during […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Department of Energy should have an interim storage site for nuclear fuel within 10-to-15 years, an Office of Nuclear Energy official told the National Cleanup Workshop here Thursday. “The Department of Energy has a trust problem; I understand that,” said Sam Brinton, deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition,” […]

Dallas-based Jacobs announced Thursday that Steve Demetriou, the CEO of the international engineering, construction and procurement company for seven years, is stepping down from the top job in January but will stay with the company as executive chair of the board. Jacobs current president and chief operating officer Bob Pragada will succeed Demetriou as CEO […]

Nuclear services company Orano Federal Services and environmental services contractor Spectra Tech created a joint-venture company to pursue small business set-aside contracts, the two said in a joint press release. The new joint venture, dubbed Spectrano, will “leverage its history of performance at federal sites across the country,” Orano said in the Wednesday release. The […]

Atkins Nuclear Secured Holding Corp. broke ground Tuesday on a new $20-million technology center in Richland, Wash., near the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Located next door to the current Atkins Engineering Laboratory, the new facility will have a 16,000-square-foot high-bay testing area specifically to develop innovative nuclear and environmental cleanup technologies, the SNC-Lavalin company […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management, long-term custodian of 101 previously contaminated sites cleaned up by other federal entities, expects to see its portfolio nearly double over time, a top administrator said last week. The Office of Legacy Management will take charge of 20 more sites over the next five years, Jay Glascock, […]

The West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear cleanup site 35 miles south of Buffalo, N.Y., again has a congressional member in the House of Representatives effective Tuesday, albeit a short timer. Republican Joe Sempolinski was sworn in Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to represent the 23rd congressional district of New York.   “It […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 25 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during August, according to the public website. That’s far more than the seven received at the underground salt mine during August 2021. The increased number of shipments during the past month means the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

Cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) last week began excavating corrugated metal pipes containing radioactive waste buried at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Retrieval of the corrugated metal pipes began Sept. 8 as part of a project that could last into March 2024, the spokesperson said […]

During a federal appeals court hearing Tuesday on mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for most federal employees, the Department of Justice attorney said a federal district judge was wrong to shut down the policy spawned by a September 2021 executive order just as an administrative board was about to start ruling on requests for exemptions.  Charles Scarborough, […]